prescriptions

Rob Davies, member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Welsh Pharmacy Board reflects on the 2015 Medicines Safety Conference and the benefits of attending this year’s forthcoming event.

As a pharmacist and independent prescriber, medicines safety is an issue close to my heart. It is our pre-occupation as a profession, ensuring medicines are appropriate for the patient, are taken safely and as intended. I was excited therefore to attend the RPS Wales annual Medicines Safety Conference last year to hear about strategic plans for Wales and to learn more from practice examples. Read more Putting Medicines Safety First in Wales ›

This year in my pharmacy we are planning to open for the morning on Boxing Day to increase patients’ access at a time where many other health services are closed. However, I am acutely aware that we are still unable to support patients who are not from our pharmacy safely and easily due to lack of access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS)/Key Information Summary (KIS) records in pharmacies across Scotland. Community pharmacies were promised this by 2014 – it is inconceivable that we still do not have this at the end of 2015. Community pharmacists remain the only health professionals with direct patient contact who do not have access. Read more Access to Records – Supporting Patients over the festive period and beyond ›

As part of our commitment to patient safety, we’re proud to be involved in the Real Danger campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the dangers of buying prescription medicine online without a consultation with a heath professional or proper authority. We took part in important research that resulted in some alarming statistics:

About the RPS blog

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is the dedicated professional body for pharmacists and pharmacy in England, Scotland and Wales.

Our blogs are written by experts and provide thought provoking information and commentary on health, health policy issues and lifestyle choices. Here you will find opinions and comments on topics related to public health and medicine safety.

We work with a variety of health, charity and business partners to help us highlight particular health issues and run successful health campaigns. We will be inviting guest bloggers from these organisations to help us create interesting, varied and engaging public content.